Cloud computing relates to the sharing of computing resources that are generally accessed via the Internet. In particular, cloud computing infrastructure allows users to access a shared pool of computing resources, such as servers, storage devices, networks, applications, and/or other computing based services. By doing so, users, such as individuals and/or enterprises, are able to access computing resources on demand that are located at remote locations in order to perform a variety computing functions that include storing and/or processing computing data. For enterprise and other organization users, cloud computing provides flexibility in accessing cloud computing resources without accruing up-front costs, such as purchasing network equipment, and investing time in establishing a private network infrastructure. Instead, by utilizing cloud computing resources, users are able redirect their resources to focus on core business functions.
In today's communication networks, examples of cloud computing services a user may utilize include software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) technologies. SaaS is a delivery model that provides software as a service rather than an end product. Instead of utilizing local network or individual software installations, software is typically licensed on a subscription basis, hosted on a remote machine, and accessed as needed. For example, users are generally able to access a variety of business and/or information technology (IT) related software via a web browser. PaaS acts as an extension of SaaS that goes beyond providing software services by offering customizability and expandability features to meet a user's needs. For example, PaaS can provide a cloud based developmental platform for users to develop, modify, and/or customize applications and/or automating business operations without maintaining network infrastructure and/or allocating computing resources normally associated with these functions.
Within the context of automating business, IT, and/or other organization-related functions (e.g., incident tracking (help desk)), PaaS often provides users an array of tools to implement complex behaviors, such as rules, scheduled jobs, events, and scripts, to build automated processes and to integrate with third party systems. Among these functions is providing the ability to provide single sign-on authentication to a particular user. One example of a protocol that may be used for providing single sign-on is security assertion markup language (SAML). SAML is a protocol that uses security tokens containing assertions to pass information about a user between a SAML authority and a service provider. An administrator may set up a single sign-on profile for a particular user, but often issues with the profile are not caught until the user attempts to utilize the single sign-on profile. Further, an administrator may set up a single sign-on profile to utilize a particular certificate, but the certificate is often managed by another party. Thus, the certificate may become obsolete, for example when a new version of the certificate is released rendering the single sign-on profile inoperable.